In and Out of Focus
by slytherinrules85
Summary: That’s the woman I’m going to marry.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** I don't own it. Bah.  
**Spoilers:** Uh... The miniseries, only.  
**A/N:** My first Tin Man fic. Enjoy.

(originally posted at reset winter over on LiveJournal)

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_That's the woman I'm going to marry._

He'd said that, twenty years ago, to Irwin Slotch, his bunkmate at the O.Z.'s one-and-only police academy, a place most everyone referred to as the Forge, when he saw a younger Adora Gryn walking through the market in Central City. She's been so pretty then – she always was – all tall and blonde and leggy, with a laugh you could hear half a mile away.

He'd meant it, too. Of course he'd meant it. He'd married her, hadn't he? They got married right after he became a bona fide Tin Man and a few years later Jeb had come along and he was happier than he ever could be again.

Except for one thing. It was a little niggling thought at the back of his mind, one he usually ignored, or pretended to.

_Did he really love her? Or did he marry her because Irwin spread what he said around and there was nothing he could do but woo her, otherwise he'd never live it down? _

He'd never regretted Jeb, though. Jeb was everything good about him and Adora, smashed together and made perfect.

At least, that's what Adora'd thought.

He never voiced his thoughts on the subject to his (late) wife: that Jeb was his own person with some inherited traits, but in the end he was his own and nobody else's.

Never once in the past eighteen years had the thought that was on a continuous loop gone through his head.

_Was it all a façade? Did I trick myself into believing it was love? _

Because now, whenever he looks at this other woman, this savior of the O.Z., he can't remember Adroa setting his bones on fire the way this girl does wit just a look.

And he knows he shouldn't. And he knows he can't.

_But by any god there is, and all the stars in the sky and anything else he can think of, he swears he loves this woman, this savior, who woke him up and saved him. DG. _

He sees her talking to other men, and then they touch her – especially in innocuous ways, because he _can't_ – he wants to slam their heads against the nearest pillar until his hands are covered in blood.

Raw has started giving him odd looks.

Sometimes he thinks these things when he sees her talking to Jeb. He can't – won't, shouldn't – stop himself from it, because a queen has to confer with her Army's commander, but they spring from the dark reaches before he can stop them.

He also can't stop from feeling smug about being the only straight man in the O.Z. to have seen the queen in what could politely be called a nightie, but what was in all actuality a negligee.

_Sometimes they were lacy, and on one occasion red, lacy, and mildly see-through. He still woke up in the middle of the night, hot and bothered, after dreaming of her coming to him in it. _

He knows that, while the former queen (Glynna, she was called; her actual first name was Glinda, though) and Ahamo wanted their daughter to marry and give them grandchildren, she was in no hurry. She would tell her parents that every time they visited from Finaqua, in quiet but firm tones that plainly said, "I am the Queen," to everyone.

_Sometimes, his dream would be about her telling him she loved him and was waiting for him, if only he'd see. _

He still didn't know if he were miserable or happy that, as the head of the Tin Men – the "Top Shield" – his duty was the lead on the Queen's protection detail. He didn't even know why she gave him the post. He'd've understood if she made him one of her bodyguards, but the primary? He never did know what went on behind those big blue eyes.

_At least he got to keep his hat. _

It had only been three months since the withc had been banished from Azkadellia, but DG had grown so much since then. He remembered the tantrum – there really was no other word for it – she'd thrown when her mother had told her she would be queen now.

It took three days for the princess royal, Az, and her father to break through the magical barricade around DG's rooms.

He'd just climbed down from the balcony above and made her let him in. He wasn't about to let her stay there, trapped and alone, until someone could get through. Not that he didn't regret it. Three days of her moaning and complaining about her situation. Eventually he just started to him and she got the picture and shut up.

_But when she complained, she was in her Other Side pajamas and apparently didn't wear undergarments with them, and, well… the palace was cold. _

He goes in to wake her up every morning. When she first asked him to, he asked why, and she told him that he was the only one he'd trust to do it and the only she knew would wake her up, since the palace maids were far too nice.

He goes in one morning and she's already awake, which is unusual. She's sitting, curled up, in the window seat, barely covered by her sleepwear.

"Sorry," he mutters gruffly, because he can't stammer.

"No, it's all right, Wyatt," she says, and immediately he knows something's up. She only calls him that when she has something important to tell him.

_Or in his dreams, when she screams it out, hair strewn across his pillow, nails digging in his back. _

"Please, come here." And she looks over at him with those huge blue eyes so alike his own, but at the same time so not. "Sit," she tells him, motioning to the tiny space at the end of the window seat. He squeezes himself in – it's a small window seat, and he's a big man – and turns to face her.

"Yes?" He leaves off the 'your majesty' because this early in the morning she's prone to give people a day-long case of static touch if 'your majestied' too much.

She gazes at him, face much closer because she's moved to sit so she's shoulder-to-shoulder with him, and one hand hesitantly reaches up to cup his cheek. When her lips touch his, he doesn't know what to think.

_Oh, but he does, and before he knows it, his hands have moved of their own accord and she's on his lap, pressed so close that neither one of them can breathe. _

He'd moved so that his back was to the wall with the window to his left, but she was still on his lap, snuggling to get closer to him, her small hands on either side of his face holding it to hers.

Soon they both need to breath and she looks at him and says, breathlessly, "I've wanted to do that since we stopped the witch."

He's brushing her hair out of her face and murmurs in response, "I wish you had," before he can force his tongue to say that this is wrong, that they can't do this, he's just a Tin Man and she deserves someone much better.

She's kissing his face now – hesitant, fluttering, delicate little kisses – and all he can think about is how the top of her nightgown has been dragged down and so much more of her is visible and he's so tempted to take this too far, right there on the window seat that he almost doesn't hear her when she says –

"I love you."

The look on his face must've been shocked because she hurried on to say, "You don't have to say anything – please, don't – and I didn't mean to say anything, but it just slipped out and I'm rambling." She gives him an embarrassed look and her cheeks are bright red which matches her bruised lips, where he'd been a little too rough.

And before he can say that, while he is attracted to her and likes her a great deal, he doesn't know if he'll ever recover from Adora's death, he says –

"I love you. So much."

_And he does. And he's never loved anyone – except Jeb, but that's different – this much. He wants to say a million things to her, but he doesn't know where to start, so he's just repeating himself. _

"I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you," he's saying, in his low, gravely voice.

And now she's laughing, with tears running down her face.

And he's never been happier, and he can't imagine anything topping this.

And he knows that for certain.


	2. Chapter 2

_You wanna know something? Well, girl, you'd better ask me._

He said that to DG three weeks after beginning whatever it was they had. She'd given him a look when he called her 'girl,' and he'd smirked and said at least it wasn't kiddo. She gave him a smirk that matched his own and said that there wasn't any way he could call her that.

Not after last night, any way.

Two seconds later the representative from the Traders' Guild came in, but if he hadn't… He would've had a much more interesting morning.

_It was so hard to restrain himself, especially now he knew he didn't have to. But she had a reputation to uphold and even if she wanted to put off matters of state to christen her desk, she couldn't._

His day-to-day life hadn't changed much – wake her up, shadow her around the palace/Central City/Finaqua, etc. – but it seemed so much more. He was so much more possessive of her, but less angry. He watched her talk to other men and instead of becoming angry enough to bash their skulls in, he just watched them in their flirtatiousness and when they looked his way, he gave them the smuggest look he could muster.

Raw had formerly been in chambers next to DG's. Two and a half weeks ago he'd moved across the palace. The looks the Viewer gave him now weren't so much odd as knowing (and a little amused).

_The first night they spent together was long and sweet. He didn't want to rush anything for her – she was young and delicate and he didn't want to hurt her – but halfway through she bit his ear and he went crazy. Good thing the next day was a holiday – neither one of them could leave her quarters._

He liked having her to himself and knowing he was the only one. Before she told him her feelings, she would see suitors from around the O.Z., to please her parents, but now she would tell them outright she wasn't interested.

Their downcast looks made him especially happy, for some reason.

A week ago he went back to his quarters in the Honored Guest wing – half a hallway away from the Royalty Wing – to find them empty. When he went to ask her why, she smiled and told him that she found she needed her bodyguard closer and had moved him into the room in her quarters meant for a maid.

His lips almost curled up in a grin before he remembered that there were two maids and Glitch – who, upon regaining his brain, decided to keep Glitch over Ambrose; he never revealed why – standing in between them. Instead he just fixed his lips in a tight line and gave a stony nod.

_He liked to wake up in the middle of the night with her in his arms. Her hair smelled sweet and light, like the flowers that grew in the field of the Papay. He'd breathe her scent in deeply and sometimes she would wake up and it was those moments that were perfect._

One day she comes out of one of her endless meetings and has a funny look on her face. He'd been called away and instead her sister had sat in with her – no one dared threaten the queen when the princess royal was there – so he had to ask what the matter was. She opened her mouth, as if to ask him, when she caught sight of Jeb standing behind him. Her face colored and she instead greeted Jeb softly and asked about his duties.

He wishes he could tell Jeb about this woman that he loves, how she loves him too and how they're so happy, but he can't. He can tell his son knows something is different, how now he's happier and less likely to snap at everyone, but he hasn't said anything yet.

Later he goes with her to a tea and there are children everywhere. She looks startled, so he reminds her that it's customary to bring children to the annual Spring Tea. She nods, absently, and smiles vaguely at a little girl bounding by, who's yelling at her older brother to stop and help her climb a tree.

_He wonders what their children would look like. Would they be blonde and blue-eyed or dark with blue eyes? He never even considers them not having either his or her eyes, but then again, every time he considers children, he has to remind himself that she can't marry him, ever, and they someday they'll have to end this and she'll marry someone suitable and his heart will die, but he won't ever leave her because he can't._

She spends a lot of her free time with Azkadellia and he's grown to like this other woman, who is recovering from the years of her possession with so much grace. He knows she hasn't told Az anything about them, but sometimes when she's pouring the tea, the princess royal will give him a knowing look and ask her sister if she shouldn't call for a third cup for her poor, thirsty Tin Man and he'll answer before DG can get a word out and say it isn't his place.

And then Az will smile at him like she's saying that maybe it's not now, but soon it will be.

And he has to excuse himself because he knows that if he stays any longer he's going to say something to give them away and he can't do that because of the things people would say to her and he can't bear to hurt her. And while he wants to be free, free to tell everyone how much he loves her, he knows other people would never understand why she loves him, and to be honest, he doesn't even understand it himself.

_He climbs into bed with her and it's almost midnight and he wishes he could have come to her earlier, but the maid took so long in cleaning and he couldn't chance her catching him. But when he gets under the covers, oh so carefully, so she won't wake up and she curls up to him and places her head on his chest and sighs so peacefully in her sleep, he knows he won't ever forget this moment in time and when she's someone else's wife and the mother of someone else's child, and he's just her bodyguard again, he'll think back to this and it'll keep him warm at night._

Ahamo and Glinda aren't as perceptive as their older daughter is and they keep trying to subtly set DG up with some man from somewhere or other and she sees them and is polite, but then they propose and she'll decline just as politely and once one of them tried to slap her across the face because he thought she'd be sure to say yes to his apparently irresistible self.

He shot a hold in that one's hand as he raised it to strike her. No one touched the queen without her permission. And the only man who touched her – besides her father, but that was different – was him and he knew she couldn't stop him and she couldn't even not want him to.

After that, the suitors were less amorous around her crusty old Tin Man, which he appreciated. He hated having to shoot people, not because of the violence but because of the _paperwork_. He couldn't believe how much paperwork he had now, as the head Tin Man. At first he ignored it, then he did it to stop thinking about her, now he had no time to do it. He had finally accepted his second-in-command's offer of a secretary, which was almost as annoying, since the woman his 2IC had recommended kept trying to flirt with him until he finally told her he was involved with someone and he just wanted her to do his paperwork.

Then she quit. But after that he got Glitch to give him one of his unending line of aids and the bland little man the former zipperhead gave him was extremely good at what he did, which gave him the time to be good at what he did.

_One morning he walked into her dressing room without knocking and she wrapped her bathrobe around her body so fast and snapped at him to knock that he couldn't think of anything to say, so he just apologized and wondered what her problem was. _

Her birthday came up suddenly. Her mother wanted to have a large celebration, but she explained she only wanted a small party of family and friends to spend a few weeks at Finaqua. So they all made the short journey to the southern retreat and finally he wasn't just her bodyguard, but her friend.

His rooms were across the hall from hers and he snuck across the night after they'd gotten there – the first night he'd stayed in his own rooms because her parents were right next to her, but now he knew he could go there without rousing them. She was sitting on her bed, reading a history of the O.Z., frowning at the pages. For the first time in a long time, she was wearing one of her flimsy nightgowns. Lately she'd been wearing something more bulky and in a material she called "flannel".

He sat down next to her and she smiled over at him and asked him if he knew what that night was. He honestly had no clue, so she prodded his side lightly and informed him, in her queenliest tone, that it was their five-month anniversary. He grinned and kissed the top of her head.

"Wait one minute," she said, pulling out of his arms and bounding off her bed and into her bathroom. When she came out, she was holding a bottle and two glasses. "It's fizzy cider. I though it'd be appropriate."

He smiles at her and his eyes travel up and down her figure and then he notices something –

"What's that?" He looks at her, and he's curious, not angry.

There's a little bump under her nightgown that he hasn't noticed before. But he hasn't slept in her bed for almost three weeks now and hasn't seen her undressed in four.

She stops pouring the fizzy cider and puts the bottle down and looks at him, and that funny look she had after that meeting – which, he remembers in an odd flash, was with the Viewer liaisons – three or so months ago. Her arms cross over her chest and she sits down on the very edge of the bed.

_He's getting the weirdest feeling that his world is about to end and she's going to tell him she can't do this any more. And the thing is, he doesn't know what he would say to that. Even yesterday, he thought he knew, but now he thinks he can't see a future where he isn't with her, that he doesn't think he can live without her._

"Wyatt," she says, and he remembers the last time she called him that was when they kissed the first time. He thinks suddenly that it would be ironic if their relationship – or whatever it was – started and ended with her calling him Wyatt.

"Yes?" He's so careful in his reply, so careful that he can't say anything else; he just wants her to say what she's going to say and get it over with.

He's listening so hard to hear what she's going to say that he misses the door of her outer chamber being opened and he doesn't hear the footsteps because all he can hear is her quick, nervous breathing until she says –

"I'm pregnant."

And just like that, his world does come crashing down, but not in the way he thought it would. It comes down and a new one goes up because the only thing he can do now is pull her onto his lap and kiss her until she pulls away to breathe and his hands are on her stomach and he thinks his face is going to turn to stone because it hurts from the grin he's got on it.

And she's laughing again, just like that night, with tears coming out of her eyes, just like that night, and it's so much better than the first Wyatt and he can't stop touching the swell of her stomach where his unborn child is.

And he knows now that night, the first Wyatt, could be topped by something so big that he can honestly say that compared to tonight, that night was like a mild cheerfulness.

And he's so happy, and she's so happy. And their hands are joined together on her stomach and they're both crying. And he knows his heart is so full it could never turn to stone again.


	3. Chapter 2 and a half

_As she throws up her breakfast she wonders why a Gwen Stefani song is running through her head._

She leans against the bathroom door for a minute longer than she meant to, cool washcloth pressed to her forehead. She reaches over to turn off the faucet in the tub, turned on to full blast so he won't hear what she's done.

This is the fourth time in as many days that she's been unable to keep any food down in the morning. She worries over it, thinking she doesn't have time to be sick, she has so much to do, but at the same time she wonders over it.

_Is this what she thinks it is? She places her hand on her lower abdomen, and she's nervous about even doing this so her hand is fluttering. And, yes, there's a little roundness there, just a bit, but she sucks in her breath and feels her heart beating faster and it's not because she's shocked and unhappy, it's because she could only have dreamed of this._

A week later, her sickness stops and he's gone away on Tin Man business so her sister had accompanied her to her meetings. The last one for the day was with the Viewer representatives and when she got up to leave, the leader – an older woman – grabbed her wrist and told her in hushed tones that she carried a new life inside her, barely a month and a half old.

She's startled, because she's only been with him for two months now and it's not like this wasn't a possibility – apparently no one in the O.Z. had ever heard of condoms and she wasn't on the pill anymore – but she didn't expect it and even though, she feels so happy.

And she knows she should tell him right away, but somewhere out of the back of her mind she remembers some old factoid someone on the Other Side told her about miscarriages happening most often in your first trimester when you're stressed and she takes one look around and thinks that if she isn't stressed, she doesn't know who is.

_And now he's asking her what's wrong and she opens her mouth to tell him but his son is right behind him and she can't, so she just asks Jeb – this unknowing older brother of her child – how his life is and about his job and she sees Cain realize this isn't what she was going to say. _

All she can think, now, is about this baby, and she's surprised that Az hasn't figured it out yet, since she figured it out about her and Cain almost right away, but she's thankful, too, since she doesn't know what she's going to do. She wonders what the protocol is for unwed Queens who are pregnant with their bodyguard's child and also wonders if this is something that will get her taken off the throne.

That last thought makes her a little happy, since if she weren't queen she could marry Cain right away and they'd go live in the woods with their baby and be happy forever, but she doesn't know if he would marry her now, since he's so adamant about not wanting to tell people about them yet. She wonders if he would run from her, from this life, if she told him.

But that's just a thought she has in the blackest hours of the night and still only when he's been called away, or can't join her in bed. When he's with her she sleeps better than she can ever remember, she feels so secure with his arms wrapped around her.

_One night when she wakes up she has this thought that maybe everything will turn out all right and they'll have a happy family. And she has this vision of him running around the gardens in Finaqua after a small, laughing blonde-haired boy and black-haired girl, both with the bluest eyes she's ever seen. And she wonders if that's a true vision since this is the O.Z. and visions do come to people. And all she can do is hope it is._

She notices that Az likes to tease him and ask if he'll take tea with them and then after he leaves her sister will try to get her to confess about her secret, this secret she has with this man. It's not malicious and it's not because Az has feelings for him – her sister is half in love with Ambrose – but her sister just wants to help her and she feels guilty for not telling her, but she can't because he can't.

And one day Az says she's noticed her becoming different, not the sister who came brazenly into the O.Z., with the wanton recklessness that she had then. And she thinks it's because she has so much more to lose now, than a family she barely knows. And her sisters tells her she'd best get whatever it is that's holding her back off her chest or else she'll change into someone she doesn't want to be.

And she believes her. She knows it's true. She feels horrible for keeping this secret from him, he deserves to know about this child and she doesn't really think he'll run from her – quite the opposite, really – but she's afraid of what people will say about him, to his face. She knows they'll spread rumors and be cruel and she doesn't want him to have to endure that.

_But one night as he climbs into bed and his arms slip around her, she feels the baby inside her move and she knows then that she must tell him, tell him soon, so she arranges for them to all go to Finaqua for her first birthday as queen. _

In the weeks before they go to Finaqua she arranges things so he can't come to her bed – for four weeks she has to sleep with a shirt of his she stole, because she can't get to sleep if she can't breathe in his scent – and for the three preceding she doesn't let him see her undressed because she has, as the say on the Other Side, "popped" and there's a tell-tale swell on her stomach that marks where the baby is.

The second night that they're in Finaqua – where it's just her parents, her sister, him, Glitch and Raw – he comes to her room and she's prepared to tell him, she thinks it's perfect tonight, their five-month anniversary. She's got fizzy apple cider and some glasses and she's put on one of her old flimsy negligees and is going to tell him.

And when he comes in she smiles and tells him what that night is and he's surprised and she knows he doesn't count the days with her, but views them all as a gift, just like she does, and savors every moment they can get together. She jumps up almost immediately because she's about to cry and she wants to get the drinks first and she does and as she's pouring, he asks her about the bump under her gown.

She sets the bottle down and all of a sudden thinks back to that meeting with the Viewers and sits down carefully on the very edge of the bed.

_And suddenly his face goes hard and stone-like and she can't see his thoughts written there anymore and for the first time in weeks she's nervous about telling him and her breaths come quick and shallow and she's just hoping he won't hate this._

"Wyatt," she says, and fights the urge to smile because she so rarely calls him by his proper name – the last time was when she first kissed him – and his face goes even more closed off when she says this.

"Yes?" And she can't tell what he's thinking, his answer is so curt and cut off.

He looks so forbidding and she wants to tell him that she's just been sampling too much of the O.Z.'s wonderful pasty and baked goods but all of a sudden her tongue betrays her and she blurts out something you should never blurt –

"I'm pregnant."

And the look on his face is so wonderful that she only vaguely registers the sound of her outer chamber's door opening and footsteps coming to her bedroom's door because he's grabbed her and is kissing her and all she can think is that he doesn't hate her, thank God, and his hands are feeling her bump.

When she pulls back to breathe she thinks that she's never seen him smile this much, not even when he first realized Jeb was still alive. And she's laughing because it seems so funny now, all her worries and anxiety about how he would react and tears roll down her face and he's whispering to her how happy he is and how he loves her so much.

And they're both crying and laughing and they're touching her stomach together and she's happy she told him now because as both their hands touch her stomach the baby starts to kick like crazy and it only makes them cry more.

And it's in this moment that she knows her life is complete and she can't imagine anything ever being better than this and she knows he feels the same.


	4. Chapter 3

_This all seems so familiar, and so not. It's like it's happened before, but this time is better and he can tell._

He's holding her to him and they're happy and so they're both surprised and turn as the door opens and Azkadellia is standing there in her dressing gown, looking both shocked and happy.

The princess royal asks if what she thinks is going, is, and DG starts to say something but he cuts her off and says firmly in a this-is-how-it-is-and-don't-you-try-to-change-it tone that yes, they're in love and yes, she's going to have their child.

And Az breaks into a smile and comes in quickly, shutting the door behind her and hugs her sister tightly and then hugs him and says she always wanted a brother. And he's glad he's already crying a bit because he never imagined that the first response they'd get would be so accepting, so happy, but since he's himself, he wipes his eyes quickly because he doesn't like being emotional in front of anyone but her because she's the only one he trusts with his heart.

_And Azkadellia is telling her that she's going to make the baby a magical mobile to float over its crib and she's asking if DG's planned the nursery yet and then she asks the question he and she haven't broached but it's been there between them for months now, she asks when they're getting married._

And she looks at her sister and as she's about to answer he feels like he's about to see her break under her love for him and instead she gets that little devilish look on her face and turns to him and asks him to marry her.

He's dumbfounded, which is something new – just because he doesn't talk that much doesn't mean he doesn't always have something to say – and all he can do is stare at her and her sister is laughing her head off, but doing it quietly because they don't want to wake their parents. And of course he says yes, but he doesn't because he can't speak, so he nods and she nods back, matter-of-factly, and tells her sister, there, it's settled.

That snaps him out of it and he laughs at her and brushes his lips over her temple because he's feeling a little too shy about even having his arm around her waist the way it is now in front of her sister – even though she's pregnant with his child, so it isn't like there's a square inch of her body he _hasn't_ seen – and she laughs at him and pulls him down in a full-fledged breath-stealing kiss and her sister laughs all the louder at them.

_And he thinks this is the perfect beginning to a new family, his new start. This time, though, it's different, it's perfect._

He's wondering, though, what will he do for a ring? All he could afford with Adora had been a plain gold wedding band, but now he had more money – oddly enough, the Longcoats had forgotten to close off his bank account and after almost ten annuals of not touching them, the interest had piled up – and he wants to get her something spectacular.

He tries to mention something along those lines and she fixes him with her huge eyes and he feels like a moth with open flame and she says that if all he had was a band-aid, she wouldn't care as long as she was his and he was hers. And the moment – and Az's cooing – is somewhat ruined by him asking what a band-aid is.

_After a while her sister leaves because it's late and they need to sleep if they're going to tell everyone the next day – which they decided they'd do. But as soon as he closes and locks the outer chamber's door to the hallway she drags him back into bed and their clothes are gone faster than he can blink – for a second he thinks she magicked them away but then she's kissing him and he can't think anymore. _

He never thought he could be more attracted to her than he already is, but the thought of her bearing his child and them getting married apparently is an aphrodisiac for both of them because by the time they actually settle down to sleep, it's dawn and it takes all of his energy to cross the room to pull the blinds to and then get back into bed.

When they finally wake up it's long past noon and a quick inspection of the sun says it's almost dusk and she gives him this sheepish grin because she's the one who jumped him and he just grins back at her and knows she knows that if she hadn't, he would've.

The palace at Finaqua is different than the other palace – wings of quarters are set around a larger common area, with two large hallways at either end to lead to other wings or the stairwells – and he knows that as soon as they leave her quarters that her family will see them because there's no way they aren't (nervously, angrily) waiting in the common area to see why she hasn't been up yet.

She must've been thinking the same thing because after they've both showered – he put back on his clothes from the night before, his normal button-up shirt and tan pants that she always seems to find so much enjoyment at brushing the lint off of; he'd never understand women – because she flops down on a settee and moans that she wishes they could never leave these rooms. When he points out that would be bad, because then he'd have to deliver the baby, she glares at him and says that he knew what she meant and all he can do is chuckle at her look.

She's wearing pants – not her jeans, apparently they don't fit over her enormous stomach anymore – and what she calls a "tee shirt" that makes extremely evident the swell of her stomach. He pulls her off the overly-plush piece of furniture, sure to overemphasize his grunt of effort and she wrinkles her nose at him and goes over to the door and sighs and looks at him and says that this is it, no turning back. And he goes over and puts his hand on the small of her back and said he never wanted out even when he wasn't in. And that puts a smile on her face.

_And as she opens the door, he hears a clamor start up from her parents and Glitch – and, alright, various advisors she'd had to bring because you can't stop being the Queen just for your birthday, apparently – that only stops when they see the joint picture of her rounded stomach and his stony glare._

Her mother, Glitch, and all the advisors are all open-mouthed at this. Ahamo seems to be quicker on the uptake and he takes in the arm that's around his younger daughter's waist and the protective hand lain on her stomach and he looks up at the Tin Man and gives him an affirming nod and seems, if not accepting, than understanding.

Glinda just looks at her daughter and asks what has happened, why didn't she tell them? And she looks back at her mother and says, in that tone she uses when they try to set her up, that she's in love and they're having this child and they're going to get married. And her mother doesn't seem to get who the 'him' in this picture is and turns to him and demands to know who he, the Queen's sole protector, let do this to her daughter.

And since he hears DG snicker quietly beside him he lets his mouth fall into a smirk and he responds, slowly and carefully, that he allowed the only man he'd ever allow to do this: him.

And finally the former queen seems to get it and she glances between him and her daughter and finally looks at her daughter and asks her if she's going to marry this Tin Man and if she's really going to have their child. And her daughter, this woman who is no longer just a daughter or lover, but a mother too, gives her mother strong look for strong look and replies that yes, she is going to do both those things with this man, who is a good man, honest and loves her. And he feels his face burning because he hates being the center of attention like this.

And Glinda sinks back into – yet another – overly plush piece of furniture and sighs audibly and DG winces, thinking this is going to be the first time she'll hear of disappointment from either of her parents and Az moves closer to her, ready to support her if necessary, when their mother lets out an extremely loud 'Hallelujah' that apparently she picked up from her husband because he's never heard it said in the O.Z. before and DG's looking shocked and he's just relieved no one's threatening to have him arrested.

_And the lavender-eyed woman is looking at her daughter, the queen, and is saying that she's so thankful DG is picking such a good man and she'd been so afraid that she would marry one of the (many) noblemen paraded in front of her these past few months and DG is looking at her mother and asking her why she'd parade those men in front of her if she didn't want her to marry one of them and her mother retorts that it was so she'd make the right choice and pick what was right under her nose all along. And he feels like he's been maligned somehow in this exchange, but chooses to ignore it because he doesn't want to risk being throttled. After all, he did make love to her precious daughter, her angel._

The only exclamations of horror he can hear are from the advisors, half of whom took off for the library to search for a precedent for this, the other half were trying to 'talk sense' to DG or interrogate him. He got rid of them with a well-timed cocking of his pistol hammer.

Eventually someone had the presence of mind – it was Glitch, of all ironies – to ask why Azkadellia and Raw didn't look surprised. Az colored when he looked at her and said she'd found out the night before and Raw said he knew when it had started, which led to everyone asking when it had started and how far along she was and all the normal questions you ask.

And he finds that he's not really concerned that she kept this a secret from him for so long, he knows she had her reasons and if he were her he'd think that he'd bolt, too. Except he isn't going to because he really wants this new life – maybe not the married-to-the-queen part, but he'll learn to deal – and now that everyone knows he tells her quietly that now, maybe they can tell Jeb.

And she turns to look at him and she's got this shocked look on her face and he starts to backtrack and say if she doesn't want to, they don't have to. And she pokes him firmly in the forearm and tells him that they are absolutely going to tell Jeb that he's going to be an older brother and she wants him to be part of the family, if he wants it. In fact, she dispatches one of her annoying advisors off to fetch Jeb to Finaqua so they can tell him as soon as possible.

_Then someone asks when they're planning on getting married and for some reason all eyes turn to him and he shrugs and says he doesn't care, whenever, wherever, as long as they're together and she nods, but not after she giggles and says the word Shakira for some reason – he loves her, but he'll never really understand her, he thinks – and her mother sighs and says, men, in this exasperated tone. Her father laughs at that and asks Glinda, gently, if she doesn't remember their own wedding. Glinda goes red and he thinks, he has to find out that story some time._

She says, amused, that they'll have to get married soon if no one wants the baby to show up at the wedding and her father shrugs, as if he doesn't really care, but her mother is nodding vehemently and Cain wants to as well, since he was raised to believe unwed pregnancies were just plain Not Done but when you're on the other side of the line, he finds, you don't care much for the line.

And he looks down at her and says, gruffly, that he thinks this is all turning out a little too perfect. Just one negative response, that's all they need, he hypothesizes. She laughs and rolls her eyes and says they'll get plenty of those. He does feel edgy that everyone's so accepting of this, but maybe for once everything's going his way and a bomb drops.

"So the baby's surname will be…" muses Ahamo.

And Glinda says, "Well, Gale of course."

And DG gives her mother a funny look – one that he recognizes, one that spells trouble – and she says, "No. It'll be Cain."

And even he's shocked because he never thought that she would do that, change the Royal Family's name like that. And everyone else is shocked because the room positively erupts into exclamations.

Three hours later and Raw's hidden under what he thinks is an ottoman, but could just be a overly-gilted footrest and Azkadellia and Ahamo are on DG's side and all the advisors are with Glinda and he doesn't really care, as long as the baby's healthy, so he's just pretending to clean his gun so everyone will leave him alone.

Finally DG silences everyone by grabbing his gun and firing a round into the ceiling and he yells at her for a few minutes in the silence that succeeds it, telling her what he'll do to her if she touches his gun again – and telling her with his eyes what he _won't_ do if she touches his gun again – and she's nodding, but she's also impatient so he cools it and lets her say what she was going to say.

"The baby's surname will be Cain," she says, and the grumbling almost starts again but he's really annoyed by this time and cocks the hammer back and aims his pistol at the grumbler and says, "Please," and they shut up, real quick.

She gives him a quick, amused look and goes on. "But when he or she grows up they can choose if they want to be Gale or Cain. Not us." She pauses, and a corner of her mouth quirks up and she smiles as she continues with, "I would say it's because I don't want to dictate my child's future but really I'm just weaseling out of this. So don't let me catch you trying to influence the baby, but it will be the baby's choice. Not ours."

And so everyone's satisfied. Almost, at least. Sort of.

And so that night, when his son – who's only two years older than his father's new fiancée – arrives, they sit him down with just her family and Raw and Glitch, the advisors having all retreated to aid the search in the library.

And Jeb's looking from him to DG and asking what this is all about, because a sit-down with the Queen and the former Queen and the Princess Royal and Ahamo and the head of the Tin Men and the First Minister and the Viewer can only mean big news.

_He's so nervous about this, telling Jeb, and he doesn't really understand why. How do you tell your long, forcibly-estranged son that you are starting another life and family with a new woman who isn't his mother and, moreover, is the Queen of the O.Z.? _

"DG and I are getting married," he says, blurting it out, because he doesn't know any other way to do this.

"We're having a baby," DG adds, smiling up at him the way she does when they're together at night and then smiles at his son in a more normal way.

His son stares at them both, mouth dropped open. And now he's really worried.

"Wyatt," DG whispers, so he knows she thinks this is important too, "maybe this was too much, too soon?"

"Maybe," he returns, "but I don't want to keep secrets."

And he looks back over at his son, who's not looking at him. His son is looking instead at DG, this woman who's going to bear his father's second child and start a new family.

And the way he's looking at DG irritates a dark place in his soul.

And he can't help but think he's missed something.


	5. Chapter 4

_I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but I can't do this._

He hears those words ringing in his head, the words his son had said after they'd told him about their wedding and the new baby. Jeb had gotten up and taken off and it took a few quick words from DG to make sure he didn't leave Finaqua, so he knows that his oldest child is somewhere in the palace in a guest room, probably fuming at them.

And he doesn't know why.

_All he can think about is the look Jeb gave him, something mixed, like disgust and wonder and disappointment._

She's sitting beside him on the bed and is whispering soft words of comfort and he can't pretend that she's not helping him because, to be honest, her presence is more of a balm to him than anything he's ever felt.

Her sister is sitting in a chair by the window and he wonders how she's made it back in here, when he refused to let Glitch or Raw, but this woman who used to be his enemy is the one who's now offering – albeit, hesitantly – a theory as to why Jeb walked away.

She says, is it possible that, maybe, and here she pauses and gives DG an odd look before going on, that Jeb's in love with DG? He almost scoffs, but then he remembers things Jeb used to say and he's about to say that it could be a possibility when DG says, firmly, that no, he's not, because he's been sleeping with the daughter of the Foreign Minister. He stares at her now, surprised that she knows this and he doesn't, and she gives him an apologetic look and says that her Intelligence Minister likes to keep her abreast of her officials' goings-on.

This has him interested and he asks what the Intelligence Minister said about him and she laughs and says that all they could find out is that he puts too much salt on his potatoes and that other than that he's completely dedicated to the job. She says that apparently the agents that were watching him were completely bored by his life and requested to follow old Lord Derdin around, instead. He laughs at that.

_He's relieved that his son isn't in love with her – that would be far more emotional baggage than he could ever handle, especially since he's pretty new at this emotional thing at all – but if he had, at least he'd've known what the hell was wrong with Jeb._

The next morning she's got State business to do so he tracks down Jeb's room and pounds on the door until his son opens it up and shoulders past him with a gruff, we've got to talk. His son closes the door and sits down on one of the – he's convinced – eighteen billion overly-plush pieces of furniture and says, what about.

He knows his son isn't this dense – after all, he's half Wyatt Cain – and fixes him with a look that must've pinged some long-dormant memory of Jeb's and he stops acting like a sullen five-year-old. Why are you doing this, he asks. Why are you letting her change you? She's just using you, even if she is pregnant.

He stares at Jeb and wonders if this is how Adora raised him, so disrespectful, and he makes a note to be sure to watch out for that with this new child. She's not changing me, he tells his son, and she's not using me. I love her. She loves me.

_His son scoffs. A memory flashes to the front of his cortex, a similar conversation almost twenty years ago, with his parents. Them telling him about how they thought he was rushing it with Adora. He shakes it off, though. It's not something Jeb needs to know about – his grandparents were doting and very loving, their memory shouldn't be polluted. _

Something brilliant catches his eye and he pulls an emerald brooch from where it's half-hidden and caught on sofa cushion. Something ripped off by accident in the heat of passion, he realizes, since he's known those emotions lately. Something not belonging to his son. He holds it up and Jeb's face becomes a stony clone of his. Is this hers, he asks. Is this the brooch of the daughter of Minister Kutchner?

He knows his son is absolutely shocked he knows, and he doesn't let his own stony look fall. Give it to me, Jeb says, reaching for the brooch. She'll be missing it – I should get it back to her.

But this discussion isn't over yet. He tucks the brooch into his coat's inner pocket and pushes his son firmly back onto the couch. No, he tells him, I'll get it back to her later. Now we have to talk. So is all this because of this girl, the Minister's daughter? What's her name, any way?

Evangeline, Jeb tells him, face bright red as he stares at the wall. Her name is Evangeline. Here, his face gets tighter and his voice grows hoarse and he gives his father a look like he's not used to having someone he can depend on, instead of being the person that's depended on. I think I've fallen in love with her, he goes on, but she doesn't care. She comes to me in the night or whenever she's free for… He turns red, because this sort of thing is taboo in the O.Z. and when his situation with DG gets out, the people are bound to be shocked: this is the thing that Does Not Happen to Nice Girls.

_So this is it, he thinks. Two Cains, both in love with women so beyond them, one lucks out and the other is used. We have so much in common._

He repeats that last thought out loud for his son to hear, which makes the twenty-three-year-old laugh hysterically; later he would say it was either laugh or cry. I still don't know what to think, the young man admits later, after he's stopped laughing. I mean, Mother died only four years ago… but for you it's been fifteen years, more, really.

He chooses his next words carefully, so that later he might still have some pride and self-respect. Son, he says slowly, I will always love your mother for giving me you. Nothing will ever change that. It must have satisfied whatever childish remnant of reuniting his family lingered in Jeb, because he brightened and nodded.

How did you not get caught, Jeb asks suddenly, as they're walking down a hallway. With her Majesty, I mean.

_He considers the question and a small grin curls the side of his mouth as he thinks of the nights that he reassigned guards and, on one occasion, convinced a maid that the Royal Family's quarters were haunted so he could remain unmolested in his – their – nighttime activities. But in the month that the new guard of Tin Men were practicing being on the Royal protection detail he had to climb over balconies and he has a scar on the back of his hand from the climbing roses to prove it. _

He looks sideways at Jeb and says son, do you really want to know? His son hesitates and then shakes his head. No, no I don't. They laugh about that until they reach the sitting room where their friends and family are waiting. DG looks up as the door opens and smiles at them both.

"I'm so glad you decided to join us," she says, in her soft voice. The one he knows to be the placating ton she uses for difficult statesmen.

"It was either this or be dragged back, I'm sure," Jeb cracks and the princess royal snorts from her seat behind her sister. He suddenly remembers that Jeb's next posting will be Az and his only thought is, Please God, if you're there, please _no_. Of course, knowing _his_ luck…

"Since I couldn't find any rope, it's a good thing you proved compliant," he tells his son, ruffling his hair and sliding into the seat next to DG. His son lets out a very teenager-like "Dad!" and runs his fingers through his messy blond mop before sinking into a plump brocaded chair. DG lets out a little giggle and he feels a spark when she grabs his hand, using it to cover her smirking mouth.

"Yeah, yeah, _Mom_," Jeb says, falling into time-tested sarcasm. "And since you are about to become my new mommy and you're Queen and all, what about an allowance?"

_Raw and Glinda look confused and so does Glitch – though that's more his normal expression than any actual confusion – and Ahamo chuckles while Az covers her mouth with one green-sleeved arm. He thinks that Jeb has been hanging out way too much around DG when she's playing her Other Side movies that she dispatched her RoboParents to get._

DG's face is very solemn and he's about to tell Jeb to stop being an ass and just call her by her name when, once again, she's beat him to it.

"Well," she says, giving his son a serious look, "if you're _really, really good_, I'll get you a bike for Christmas."

And they all burst into laughter.


End file.
